sticks in the wood pile

Only problem I could think of is of you pack it very tight you would decrease some air movement maybe.

I say burn it.

Mine are hidden within the pile when I stack. Comes in handy when I need to start a new fire.

One of my relatives in town cuts any branch that he can into sections for me to burn. Every year I head over and take it all home and add to the stacks. I am currently burning wood he cut after Sandy. It's a mix of wood starting at 1" and going up to about 5" in diameter as anything larger I split. It's kind of a pain to fill the stove with and produces more ash with all the bark, but it's free wood and puts out good heat! I kind of like it for filling in around the larger splits for super full load on cold nights.

I tend to keep my smaller stuff (2-3" in dia) in separate stacks. I don't like to put small ones mid stack as, in my experience, they tend to make the stack a bit unstable after awhile. I have used them as "filler" on top of stacks to smooth out the top of stacks though before I top cover.

I just grab a small, dead Tulip Poplar, split it down small and stack it separate. I've also got a dead Red Pine in the yard that will end up as kindling and outdoor firewood....

Last year I made a separate stack just for little stuff. Took a nice bushy pin oak down and couldn't bear to leave all that heat behind so I cut it up and stacked it.

We keep a pile of brush at the edge of the woods just for kindling use. In fall I'll drag a few branches up to the stacks and break it up as needed. I don't put it in the wood piles, makes stacking too iffy.

Free wood is free wood. I cut and burn it all the way down to about 2" diameter.